Skinner

Life is good when you can spend the day with your friends. Today I spent the afternoon with two of my favorite people. We went to a baseball game, which is something that we all enjoy. We had a few beers and there were some peanuts involved too. These two friends are difficult for me to write about. I have to admit that I have a tremendous amount of love for both of them. And love is always a difficult thing to put down in writing.

The most significant thing that came out of the afternoon was that the two aforementioned people encouraged me to write to a friend that I haven’t heard from in a while. He was my big brother in my fraternity in college. A fantastic person who, for some reason, I have just lost track of. The last time I talked to him was September 12, 2001 – he lives in New York. But it shouldn’t take a tragedy for two old friends to get together. So I sent him an email tonight. I hope he still likes Dandelions.

I have said for a number of years that my wife is my best friend. It’s true. The unfortunate part of our friendship is that we have to put up with all the bullshit that life throws at us together. And sometimes the bullshit is more than we want to handle, so we argue about it. That’s life, right? I guess that’s what separates spouses from best friends. The commitment of friendship may actually be the same, but you don’t often have to go through the tough times with friends like you do with a spouse. Times spent with friends are just good.

I still don’t know what I can say about the two friends I spent the day with. As close as I am with both of them, and as close as the two of them are to one another, I have a different relationship with both. One is a person that has always knocked the sense back into me. The other always just listened and cared. My life without them could not possibly be the same and my future without them would be dismal. Mostly, I hope they both read this and know how much I care about them.

Recently I have mentioned, on more than one occasion, that I don’t know why people like me. I think that I’m a pretty good guy but I can’t explain why people go out of their way for me. Through the years I have had a tenuous relationship with my parents but through it all I almost have a ‘favorite child’ status. I only know this because my siblings wonder why. They do everything right, all of the time, but I get better birthday presents. I recently received a birthday card from my wife’s aunt, only to realize that neither my wife nor anyone else in the family gets birthday cards from her. I don’t know why I did. One of my favorite stories deals with my wife being congratulated at our wedding by some of my friends’ mother’s – including one of the previously mentioned friends. My wife had never actually met those women, but they were ecstatic about her marrying me. Honestly, I don’t get it. And I mean that, honestly. I don’t consider myself an ass-kisser or a brown-noser. As a matter of fact, I always thought that I pissed people off more than I impressed them. But for some reason people like me.

And that leads me back to the friends that I spent the day with. The years and times and conversations and moments that I have spent with each of my friends cannot be counted. The encouragement and support and the love exchanged between each other cannot be totaled. I find it difficult to put any type of adjective or adverb on the way I would describe my friends. That’s what makes the feelings so strong.